Opera Mini gaining worldwide momentum
Published March 29th, 2006 8:22 AM EST By Daniel GoldmanOpera’s mobile division is staying busy, announcing four more new contracts with companies that will promote and distribute the Opera Mini mobile browser to their customers.
The four companies are US-based PriceRunner, HT Telecom in Latvia, Small Planet in Russia and the Baltics, and Denmark-based Unwire, which will distribute Opera Mini in 180 countries.
This announcement comes only days after Opera announced three important distribution agreements for Opera Mini with T-Mobile, GrameenPhone in Bangladesh, and the German telecommunications service provider, Debitel.
Opera Mini is picking up momentum after its global launch in January 2006. Opera’s Eskil Sivertsen likes what he’s seen so far, telling Opera Watch “we are very pleased with the progress Opera Mini is making, and its download numbers are increasing.”
Opera Mini’s downloads are increasing every day, in contrast with the desktop browser, where the downloads typically reach a high peak with every release, then decline some and stabilize, Opera Mini is the opposite. “To ensure widespread distribution of [Opera] Mini we are dependent on distribution deals like the ones we have just announced, and for every new deal the curve goes up. So with [Opera] Mini, the per-day download numbers are only increasing over time.”
Eskil also pointed out that with the pre-installments and distribution deals with large and small companies around the world Opera is reaching more and more people through their own channels - people that have never heard about Opera Software, let alone the concept of mobile Web browsing.
Since Opera is not planning on spending millions of dollars on an Opera Mini advertising campaign, it is extremely dependent on these kind of distribution deals to get the Opera Mini word out.
Opera is betting high on the success of Opera Mini. It already has a stronghold in the traditional mobile market, and is aiming now for the 700 million Java-enabled mobile devices with Opera Mini. There is a lot of excitement in Opera over the future of Opera Mini. “You’ve only seen the beginning”, says Eskil.
If the stock market is any indication, Opera’s shares reached an all-time high after the Opera Mini deal was announced with T-Mobile and Debitel.
As of a few weeks ago over 1.7 million people have downloaded the browser. The new and current download numbers will be made public shortly by Opera.
Opera Mini is available as a free download to all users; however, mobile operators have the option of including a customized version of the browser on their mobile devices for a licensing fee.
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Opera is growing (hiring) and its products are being downloaded more - but I simply don’t understand how they manage to do this. I mean, isn’t Opera mini dependent on Opera’s servers to run? AFAIK, Opera Mini is sent compressed pages already rendered for small screens by a server. Aren’t those Opera’s servers? So does it not cost them more than 1$ (which they get from Google per download) to do the processing and traffic handling in the long run? If I am not wrong, was’nt this technology developed by an American company, don’t they hold some patents? Doesn’t Opera have to pay them for using it? And thanks, to your post I understand companies that put Opera Mini on mobiles can pay for a customized version of Opera mini, but why would they when Opera mini is already free?
Oh and the community site, it is wonderful place. 300Mb of storage Blog+Photos and Forums - lovely, but how do they pay for that. They dont have anything that looks like advertising.
I love Opera, I wish them all the luck. I just dont understand how they manage their finances.
You’re correct, all of the pages are compressed and sent through Opera’s servers. Yes, it cost money, but Opera is hoping that this will raise more awareness for their other products which they do charge for (and for the customized version of Opera Mini).
As for why a company would want to have a customized version of Opera Mini, I believe it’s mostly about branding and marketing.
Although the community site is free (at this time), it’s a way for Opera build loyal users who in turn promote Opera in their blogs (on and off the Opera community site) and on other forums, that’s free PR.